Opinion: Birmingham academics ask why top firms prefer recruits who went to public school

One of Britain's leading independent schools is Rugby School in Warwickshire

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When I went to school there were no academies, no free schools and no university technical colleges.

I went to a straightforward council-run comprehensive.

And when I went to university, I met for the first time people who had gone to an independent fee-paying school - what I would think of as public school.

They were unfailingly friendly and without an ounce of snobbery. But they were definitely different.

They dressed differently and they spoke differently, but they were also more self-assured and more eloquent than the people I was used to.

I think it’s great that some young people are taught to have that level of confidence. But it also helps explain why it’s difficult to improve “social mobility” in this country – to ensure that everyone has a fair chance of a job in the profession of their choice.

A new study confirms that access to jobs in top law, accountancy and financial firms depends largely on where you went to school.

These businesses “systematically disadvantage people from less privileged backgrounds”.

And seven out of ten of their job offers in 2014 went to graduates who had been educated at a selective state (ie grammar) or fee-paying school. But just four per cent of the population go to a state grammar and just seven per cent go to a fee-paying school.

The research was conducted by a team of academics including Professor Jo Duberley and Professor Hilary Sommerlad, both from the University of Birmingham, for Government’s Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.

It’s not deliberate snobbery. The problem is partly that firms recruit from top universities – and public school pupils are more likely to win a place at those.

But it’s also because they value “factors such as drive, resilience, strong communication skills and above all confidence and ‘polish’.”

In other words, they want the qualities public schools give their pupils. This also provides a bit of an advantage to people, like me, who went to an ordinary state school but come from a middle class family.

It’s not only unfair, it’s also bad for the economy. Because firms are missing out on good people who could help their business grow. So what can be done about it?

The Government’s commission calls on businesses to understand that what they see as confidence and polish may be more to do with where an applicant went to school than whether they can do the job.

But it’s going to take a huge shift in the culture of many of our top firms for that to happen.